Welcome to the Insider Spotlight section, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Genna Sarnak from Northfield, Massachusetts, where she teaches digital media literacy to middle school students.

Q: When did you first determine that it is important to integrate AI topics into your teaching?

A: I teach my students how to think critically about the world, from understanding digital footprints and misinformation to reading laterally and finding credible sources. I hope that they leave my class empowered with a toolkit to navigate the often- challenging digital landscape around them.

It quickly became apparent at the beginning of the school year that it was essential to integrate AI into the curriculum. Adults are using AI, including many teachers. Whether we like it or not, students are encountering and using AI as well. I started incorporating it in small ways at first with short quizzes, and students were receptive to them. From there, we moved on to full lessons and practicing using AI chatbots.

Q: How have students responded to learning about AI? Are they generally curious, skeptical, excited?

A: Overall, students are very interested in learning about AI! When we started the “AI or Not?” lesson, students completed the K-H-W-L chart and, not surprisingly, responses ranged all over the board. Some wrote that they heard “AI will take over the world,” that it’s “dangerous,” “will steal your information,” “replace jobs,” or that it’s just generally “bad.” Through the explicit lessons, we’ve been able to explore and break down how AI works (understanding training data and algorithmic bias), the potential pros and cons, the future of AI, and how students themselves can use algorithms to their advantage.

For example, we’ve practiced how to effectively write prompts using AI-generator tools (like ChatGPT), then reflect and improve upon the answers with a second prompt. Tasks like this illustrate appropriate uses of generative AI for students, while also explicitly teaching them how to effectively use keywords (for example, asking it to cite sources or reply with a specific audience in mind).

Q: What are key takeaways students have from the “Introduction to Algorithms” lesson on Checkology?

A: Students learned and were empowered to understand what an algorithm is, how they work, and how to use algorithms to their advantage. This included how they can generate the most impartial and least biased search engine results, curate their newsfeeds, engage with and determine credible sources, and reflect on their own biases. The lesson helped students understand how algorithms can serve them. Students were also able to understand how training data can be flawed and, as a result, biased. I’d say the overall result is that most students now have a better grasp on what AI is, how to determine if an image or text is generated by AI, how to fact- check sources when they’re unsure (and what factors to look for), and how AI tools are changing the nature of evidence for claims.

Q: What is one memorable time of a student having an “aha moment” related to AI?

A: It was really interesting to hear students’ perspectives on the open-ended ethical questions that I posed, such as, “Is it okay for AI to make decisions around who to hire based on job- –seekers’’ resumes, or for doctors to use it when making a diagnosis?” Challenging students to think about the real-life implications of AI answered the “So what?” and “Why does this matter?” that I sometimes encounter from students.

Q: From your experience, do young people have an inherent understanding of technologies like AI, or are they still vulnerable to falsehoods online? 

A: In my experience, students are especially vulnerable to falsehoods online, particularly around the media they consume, share, and create. Students certainly do not have an inherent understanding of technologies like AI, and now more so than ever before, teaching digital information literacy and critical thinking skills feels vital.

Q: As our infamous “bird quiz” reveals, identifying AI-generated content can feel like a guessing game! How have you built students’ confidence in their ability to tell what’s real and what’s not?

A: It isn’t always easy, so we talk about transparency and trying to understand what is the main purpose of the content presented to us. I focus on the importance of questioning content before blindly believing it (or worse, reposting it!). Especially with social media and viral posts, I stress the importance of looking at who’s sourcing and posting the information, breaking down the actual claim, what evidence is being cited to support the claim, and then fact-checking using credible sources. We practice this a lot!

I teach students some “clues.” For example, AI-generated images may struggle with drawing hands/fingers, have inconsistencies (people may suddenly disappear, for example), produce blurred text or backgrounds, and or use watermarks and labels to denote they’ve been created with AI. If it quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, but walks like a dog, something should be sending off alarms in your head, I tell them.

I’ve used resources like the “AI-generated news or not?” slides from The Sift as well to teach about critically analyzing human-created content (an author with a byline) vs AI-generated content (which is cited as such).

Ultimately, though, with the rise of more convincing AI visual technologies, hunting for visual clues alone isn’t sufficient. I teach them that the only real way to identify what’s real or not is to think critically about the context (or missing context) of what’s being posted and to find the original source. Students are encouraged to approach viral posts with skepticism, using their lateral reading and critical thinking skills to look up anything suspicious. They practice with sites like Google reverse image search and Tineye for looking up images, and they use fact-checking sites, including RumorGuard, to find reliable sources for viral claims.

Q: What advice do you have for other educators who aren’t sure how to teach about AI in the classroom, or whether they should teach it at all?

A: Explicitly teaching students AI literacy (such as how it works, when and how to utilize it, and starting a dialogue around potential ethical issues) is essential, and I think it’s important for all schools to address. Ignoring AI or living in fear of teaching about it is a disservice to our students. There are tons of resources out there to help, and if you’re feeling overwhelmed, I’d suggest starting small. Try short daily prompts, or teaching part of a lesson — it doesn’t have to be a massive unit. I often use RumorGuard slides from The Sift newsletter as “mini-lessons” to begin class (as well as the weekly -updated Daily Do Now slides and the AI version). Students understand and respond to these examples because they’re relevant, up-to-date, and — best of all, for me — they’re super easy to implement with very little prep! This is a great starting place.

At a minimum, engaging in an honest conversation with students about AI can be enlightening and useful. In an era of misinformation and disinformation, it’s our responsibility as educators to help students comprehend the world and equip them with the necessary skills for them to succeed. By supporting students with their AI literacy, we can help prepare them for the rapidly changing landscape of information and equip them to build the foundational skills they will inevitably need.

 

 

Welcome to the Insider Spotlight section, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Jennifer Liang from Atlanta, Georgia, where she teaches Media Literacy to high school students with incidence disabilities, like autism and ADHD.

Q: Why are news and media literacy skills important for all learners? 

A: Media literacy is important because we want students to mature into active, engaged citizens. I tell my students all the time that they will be voters soon, and I want them to make good choices based on facts. 

Q: What are some ways that you’ve adapted NLP resources to meet the needs of your students?  

A: Because I teach special needs, I am always adapting everything. We complete the lesson modules together as a class. That way I can make sure the students fully engage with and understand the content. Because we are reading together, I can help them break down any unfamiliar words or idioms to improve comprehension. Doing it as a group also means that we can discuss answers together. I love it when two students disagree on a response so we can talk through the concept. We make liberal use of the “try again” feature.  

Q: How do you supplement Checkology lessons to further student learning?  

I add additional readings or videos and assign projects as a summative assessment. Right now, we are working on “Conspiratorial Thinking.” We started the unit by watching a short documentary on the history of the Flat Earth movement. Their final project will be researching a popular conspiracy theory and debunking it. As part of the debunking, they have to identify the types of bias the theory demonstrates and document what kind of harm this theory causes. 

Q: What is your favorite tool from the Resource Library, and how do you engage students with it? 

A: We refer back to the Seven standards of quality journalism poster all the time. Students have to complete a weekly news article review and rate how well it meets the standards. 

Q: What is your favorite Checkology lesson to use with students, and why? 

A: The kids get really excited about “Conspiratorial Thinking.” It’s the topic they look forward to all semester. 

 

 

Welcome to the Insider Spotlight section, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Candice Roach from Port Jervis, New York, where she teaches a middle school course called Multimedia Experience. To help students identify credible evidence, Candice uses resources like the “Levels of Scientific Evidence” infographic.

Q: Evaluating evidence for its credibility is a foundational news literacy skill. What are key characteristics of authoritative sources and credible claims?

A: Not all sources are created equally. Obviously, peer-reviewed journals are going to be more authoritative than TikTok. Credible claims are those that can be verified. If a claim is online and true, it should be easy to find it in more than one place.

Q: How is news literacy relevant to your teaching of research skills?

A: News literacy is key to information literacy. Teaching students to find reliable, trustworthy information from verifiable sources is a research skill. It can be transferred to learn any content in any class.

Q: In your experience, what are some common misconceptions that students have about the credibility of sources? How do you address those misconceptions?

A: Lately, students are too trustworthy of AI! Students tend to be trustworthy in general — if someone says it, they believe it. My job is to encourage them to do a lateral search or a reverse image search and verify the information is true before they share it.

Q: How can formal research skills translate to a student’’s consumption of information on social media?

A: It is all related. Verifying information is a skill that can be used in the library, ELA, social studies or on social media. If they aren’t verifying, they may be spreading misinformation.

Q: Why is the ability to evaluate evidence important across subject areas?

A: I want my students to be well-informed. They should be confident in finding information, sharing it and citing it. This will help them do their own thinking, not just regurgitate what they are being told. It gives them agency to learn whatever they want.
 

 

Welcome to the Insider Spotlight section, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Noreen Fitzgerald-Makar from New York City, where she is an English and journalism teacher.

Q: Why is it important for students to understand the First Amendment when learning about news literacy?

A: I think that it is important for students to have a working background knowledge of the First Amendment before learning about news literacy because understanding freedom of press and speech is essential to the practice of being a good journalist and a good citizen. Students need to know what can and cannot be said, to be able to differentiate between opinion and fact, and to understand that First Amendment freedoms allow the press to act as a watchdog. One thing I like to ask students that are interested in joining the class is, “Should governments be permitted to censor news media?” A good number of them say “yes,” and it is then my job to explain why that can never happen.

Q: How does understanding the First Amendment’s protected freedoms help students become more informed, critical consumers of news? 

A: I think that understanding the First Amendment’s protected freedoms helps students because they are able to add their own voices to conversations concerning news. Knowing that they have a voice, and they can use that voice to advance a cause or convey a dissenting opinion on a controversial topic, is important.

Q: What strategies for assessing modern issues do students gain by analyzing landmark Supreme Court cases in this lesson?

A: Students learn to make connections between what has already happened and what is going on in our schools/classrooms/communities today. Students can analyze and synthesize information, for example, about why school publications are run as they are run and why change may not be possible. These real-world cases put a face on the issue and make the students more invested in learning about it.

Q: How does learning about the First Amendment’s limitations enhance students’ ability to think critically about what is true and what is false?

A: I think that learning about the limitations of the First Amendment enhances students’ critical thinking because it encourages them to engage with complex questions about the balance between freedom of expression and public responsibility. Students are challenged to consider where free speech should be protected and where it might conflict with other important values, such as public safety, national security or preventing harm.

Q: How can an understanding of the First Amendment guide students in identifying and confronting censorship and attempts to suppress free speech?

A: By understanding the scope of First Amendment protections, students can more easily identify when their rights are being infringed upon. They will be better equipped to distinguish between protected speech and instances where restrictions may be justified. They can advocate for free speech in situations where it may be unjustly restricted, such as when a school or government entity attempts to limit discussions or protests based on controversial topics.

Welcome to the Insider Spotlight, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Juan Armijo from Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he is an Advanced Placement (AP) United States government teacher.

Q: Why is it essential for students to comprehend the various types and manifestations of bias in news coverage?

A: Students get most of what they consider news or media from social media. It is important that students understand the role bias may play in reporting and providing the public with what is taking place. The lesson has some excellent examples. The poster resource is a tool that I used at the start of the school year.

Q: What are the potential consequences of not teaching students how to identify and analyze bias in the media they consume daily?

A: Many times, students are provided information without a clear understanding of how to view and understand the role of bias. If teachers use any media resource and students don’t understand how to decide if and what type of bias exists, this impacts their future as members of the community and cheats them of the ability to determine bias and how that bias impacts the truth.

Q: How might understanding their own biases influence students’ perceptions of media content?

A: We all (teachers and students, etc.) see the world or see our surroundings from the chair we sit in. I always tell my students to look at how we view information, learning and discussions from that perspective.

Q: What strategies from the lesson can students apply to identify bias in news reporting? 

A: The section in the lesson titled “What is straight news?” provides an opportunity for students to understand what reporting the facts are and see if there may be bias based on what is reported, how it is reported and what might be left out. Learning the five types of bias (Partisan, Corporate, Demographic, Neutrality and Big Story) is an important part of the process for students in understanding bias.

Q: How does distinguishing between opinion journalism and straight news reporting benefit students’ media literacy?

A: Understanding opinion pieces as opposed to what is news is important to show students that it is OK to form and discuss different viewpoints. At the start of the school year, I had students analyze a print newspaper, which is a perfectly organized type of media dividing news reporting from the opinion page.

Welcome to the Insider Spotlight section, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Cathy Collins from Boston, Massachusetts, where she is a library media specialist. 

Q: What makes editorial cartoons a valuable subject for students to study?

A: Editorial cartoons convey complex ideas concisely, making them accessible for students to interpret and analyze. Students today are very familiar with GIFs and memes, and so editorial cartoons have a familiarity to them in today’s digital world. The visual elements require students to engage with both visual and textual information. The humorous, satirical nature of editorial cartoons tends to especially speak to teens and encourages them to look beyond the literal to find the deeper meaning. By exposing students to a range of cartoons expressing differing views on a wide range of issues, we encourage them to consider multiple perspectives and help them develop empathy.

Q: How can analyzing political cartoons deepen students’ understanding of media representation and bias?

A: Analyzing political cartoons helps students begin to question dominant narratives in news, social media and other information sources. Visual cues and symbols can contain fair representation or bias and, with practice, students learn how to interpret these cues and symbols for themselves.

Q: What insights can students gain about the power of visual storytelling in shaping opinions?

A: Through analysis of editorial cartoons, students learn that visual storytelling reflects cultural values, providing insights into the power of art and the ways in which imagery shapes public opinion. Students learn that part of the power of visual storytelling is that it hits us on an emotional level and impacts us on a personal level, influencing our perceptions and beliefs. Visual messages tend to stick in our heads.

Q: In what ways might understanding the watchdog role of media inspire students to question authority or advocate for change?

A: Political cartoons hold authority figures accountable by critiquing their actions and decisions. Studying them, students are reminded that questioning authority and not being what I refer to as a “sheeple” is important. Cartoons that highlight social issues, injustice or political corruption may inspire more students to engage in activism and to strive to make a difference in their home communities and the wider world. By demonstrating the media’s role in monitoring government actions, cartoons can motivate students to participate in civic processes and to find their voices in our democracy. We all stand to benefit!